Bruins use complete effort

NEW YORK – Daniel Paille might have been the only Boston Bruin that saw the puck had not gone in.

Bruins center Gregory Cambpell threw the puck on net from the top of the left circle, it deflected up off teammate Shawn Thornton in front, hit the top of Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist's mask, bounced in the crease behind him and somehow jumped away from the goal line.

"I had a perfect view on it from the corner," said Paille's who knocked home the rebound with 3:31 left in regulation to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory over the Rangers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Tuesday night. "I thought it was going to bounce in and it bounced the other way somehow."

Seeing the loose puck in front, Paille circled behind the net, beat Rangers defenseman Steve Eminger to it to put it in off the right post for his second goal of the playoffs, silencing the Madison Square Garden crowd.

"Paille did a great job sticking with it," Thornton said. "I couldn't see behind [Lundqvist], so I thought it went in. Hence, the reason I put my hands up. I think Dougie [Hamilton] put his hands up, too. Paille had eyes on it the whole time."

It was Thornton that appeared to deflect in defenseman Johnny Boychuk's right point shot to tie the game at 1, 3:10 into the third period. The goal was credited to Boychuk, his second of the series and the fifth by a Bruins defensemen in the three games.

Still, that goal, like Paille's, was the result of the relentless forecheck of the Bruins' fourth line of Paille, Campbell and Thornton.

"If you want to give it to me I'll take it," Thornton said. "I was there. I don't know if it touched me or not. It went in. It doesn't matter."

What does matter is that the Bruins lead the series, 3-0, and have a chance to complete a sweep in Game 4 on Thursday night. The Bruins blew a 3-0 lead to Philadelphia in the 2010 conference semifinals, so they know their work in this series is not done.

"Obviously we're confident going in for the series [sweep], but it's not over," Paille said. "We've been in this situation before and I've seen it go the other way. So, for us, we're going to have to have that instinct to play as hard as we did [Tuesday] because they're going to be a team that does not want to lose that way."

The Bruins' depth at forward – and, to some extent on defense (they've had to play three rookie defensemen because of injuries) – has proven to be the difference so far. Their fourth line came through Tuesday when their other lines were not able to put the puck past Lundqvist.

In the first two games, the combination of Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron produced a pair of big goals, including Marchand's OT winner in Game 1.

"We're a better team when all four lines are going and six D and [goaltender] Tuukka [Rask] is on top of his game," Thornton said. "Again [Tuesday] we didn't have any passengers. We might have been the ones that got a couple goals, but I thought everyone was going."